Chicago White Sox

Wasting this much time and resource on Clevinger is absolute insanity to me.

Just based on sheer luck, we should be better than last year. I mean, it’s almost impossible to be that bad again. And yet here we are, nearly an 1/8 of the way through the season and we are on pace for 34 wins. I still think that we end up above 41 wins, but good god the optics will be terrible if we don’t. I mean, this is what Jerry said after last season. How could he keep Getz after another all time loss record?

If this team sets the loss record again, then Getz needs to be fired full stop.

His swing is fucked up which I called out by highlighting a groundball + popup rate that’s 24% points above his career average. But why should I expect that to be permanent? It’s been literally 60 plate appearances. Baseball players adjust all the time…especially ones with track records of success. Also, not sure where you came up with this idea he’s missing in the zone all the time this year as both his zone contact rate and whiff rate are below his career averages. It’s very clear to me that you are looking for reasons to write him off at this point.

You’re literally drawing conclusions based on 316 plate appearances: Y20-Y23: PA = 1,519 | 5.3% BB % | 25.2% K % | .221 ISO | .334 BABIP | 125 wRC+ Y24 (1H): PA = 179 | 10.1% BB % | 31.8 K % | .255 ISO | .290 BABIP | 123 wRC+ Y24 (2H): PA = 246 | 4.1% BB % | 34.1% K % | .086 ISO | .322 BABIP | 56 wRC+ Y25 (YTD): PA = 70 | 11.4% BB % | 27.1% K % | .068 ISO | .175 BABIP | 33 wRC+ Robert was legit awesome through the All-Star game of last year. He clearly was awful during the 2H of last season, but there are many reasons for that which have been highlighted plenty of times. In particular, it’s 100% clear his health was a major contributor and we can see that by his the reductions in bat speed and sprint speed last year. However, if you look at his underlying metrics so far this year you will see improvements (including chase rate). The BABIP is ridiculously low (which will normalize) and the power has been terrible despite his elite bat speed being back to normal, but as I have pointed out he hasn’t been squaring up on the ball at all. His groundball and popup rates are up a combined 24% points vs. his career rates and 26% points vs. last year. That’s the definition of abnormal and a completely different problem from last year. Do you really think that rate is going to stick? Additionally, Robert routinely struggles in April. His career wRC+ is 82 in April vs. a combined 120 for all other months. As such, there is zero reason to overreact to a slow start from him as long as he is healthy. Again, you have decided Robert is a fundamentally different player now (and a terrible one at that) because of 316 bad plate appearances. It’s absolutely wild.

My point is someone would give up something for him, even if it’s just a couple of lottery tickets. I don’t see any realistic case where we we’d decline Robert’s option unless he suffers a major injury and that’s lingering heading into the offseason.

Zero chance…big market clubs would take him in a heartbeat if he was free

I’ll be honest, I am starting to lose the little bit of hope I had that Getz wasn’t the shitty Farm Director that he appeared to be and that his failures were a result of being held back by KW & Hahn. I have no doubt that he’s made some structural improvements to the org, but ultimately you have to be able to marry the data and technology and turn it into meaningful actions to drive real change and I am currently unconvinced he knows how to do that.

It’s our only hope unfortunately

We need Ishbia to take over ASAP and clear fucking house

Dear god…I really fucking hate this team

How the f*** do we have a .160 BABIP? Have we hit the ball hard at all or are we just slapping it around?

We doing one today or have reached the point of none of us no longer caring.

Last two seasons? He put 4.9 fWAR two seasons ago? Unless you are calling 60 plate appearances in April a “season”…

Why would it be ideal to keep those guys altogether? Like slow down for a sec and think why that makes any sense?

And will be forever if we cut bait on kids after a few weeks or even months

We are rebuilding…they are competing.

Yup, he legit looked broken out there after his hip injury.

His 2021 season was driven by a super high walk rate, which really has nothing to do with his power.

He was at a 125 wRC+ prior to last year. I don’t put a ton of stock into his performance last year given the extent of his injuries and the fact this team was a fucking disaster lead by an incompetent boob. Now, if Robert’s performance doesn’t improve in the coming months, I’ll certainly change my tune on that. For now, I believe he’s the same player he always was because the elite athleticism is still there.

I think it was in a Sox Machine article by Fegan. None of the other beat writers are going to talk about technology like Trajekt machines other than Fegan.

How dare that private equity scumbag build a ballpark in the 78! Think of the ingress / egress challenges and lack of parking! Some people may have to take public transportation with all the common folk!!

You literally said he doesn’t work on anything outside of the job. I’m pointing out that he has been using technology previously not provided to him to address his major weakness during the offseason. Whether the results stick in another matter, but the core point that he’s trying to improve holds true.

A low OBP, but high ISO hitter who is 20% to 25% above league average as a hitter and who can play a quality CF.

He literally worked on a Trajekt machine all offseason and his chase rate is currently at a career best.